The longer nights of autumn afford observers plenty of time to feast on the solar system’s many wonders. The evening hours belong to Mars and Saturn, which hang low in the southwest as darkness falls. The predawn sky features nice views of Mercury and Jupiter. The bright moons of the latter planet also begin a terrific series of mutual events that finds the four objects intermittently passing in front of and eclipsing one another. The overnight hours possess more subtle charms, as Uranus reaches its annual peak one constellation east of its more distant sister world, Neptune.

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